Things Better Left Unvisited:
Exactly What It Sounds Like, Mates.
AGAIN with the racism. Since beginning these outbursts I have noticed it like I've never noticed it before. Every time I reopen Marlfox or Salamandastron or Legend of Luke I get it full in my face, and wonder how in the world it is that there are some people in existence who have read the same words I have but forcefully assert that it does not carry the heady stink of a racist message.
According to them, if the books are fiction and the racism's between cute little birds and mammals, it does not count as racism. That's only real in REAL life. Never mind that no one ever said that a "racist undertone" cannot be applied to an allegory. Nope, characters've gotta be human, otherwise children will never see it or be influenced by it.
There was so much of a heated little storm brewing about the racism issue that, way back in the good ol' days (hint: it wasn't really that good), Brian Jacques himself was asked the tentative question about it: "Why do you make all rats evil and all mice good?"
His response?
Effectively, "N-no I didn't!"
Okay, that's not what he said word for word. This is what he actually said, using Cluny the Scourge as an example:
"He's not evil because he's a rat, he's a rat because he's evil".
Yeeeaaahhh. Kind of like my friend Hope (HI HOPPIE! *waves furiously*) isn't lazy because she's part Mexican, she's half-Mexican because she's lazy!
Sorry, Hope. I know you're not lazy. You chop wood and walk dogs like no other. It's just that Brian's floating spirit here thinks you can be born a certain way because you're destined to fulfill that stereotype. Of course! Redwall's totally not racist now. Thanks to this lovely excuse, I can get on with my life and stop writing these foolish, ridiculous, God-awful----
Wait a minute.
Does that imply that you can be BORN A RAT in the Redwallverse, even though your parents were NOT RATS?! Depending on how evil or good you are pre-destined to end up as?!
Imagine if people in the real world thought like this. Ugh, nevermind, don't. It ain't pretty.
Instead, imagine THIS: Squirrels birthing rats? Otters birthing stoats? Rats birthing voles and mice? Or even something even more against nature completely, a shrew giving birth to a sealion, because that baby was DESTINED for the SEA!
*The Horror of Childbirth*
The midwife, a hedgehog maid, knelt down as the infant crowned. Several Dibbuns nearby peeking in curiously simultaneously blanched and projectile vomited into the backs of the adult beasts' backs. The beaming squirrel father patted his mate's shoulder and awaited the moment he'd see his little one's face for the first time.
"PUSH!" Everyone shouted, even though you're not supposed to do that. Everybody lit up at the sound of a little babe's cry, and the hogwife wrapped a little bundle up in a fresh towel.
She lifted its tail, causing wonderment and giggles in the Dibbuns as they cleaned their vomit-y whiskers.
"It's a boy!" she proclaimed proudly, and the congregation cheered. It stopped dead as the midwife suddenly frowned deeply.
"It's...also a weasel..."
The father threw his paws up in exasperation:
"Agh, again!? What is wrong with us?!" he waved dismissively, "Oh well. Toss it over the wall and forget it. We'll just have to try again. Eventually we'll have a good kid."
Oooooookaaaaaaay... I'm going to stop researching the Spartans now. It's done things to my brain that I can't quantify...
More may follow. If you like, you may leave an as-of-yet unanswered bit of unusual Redwall yore as a suggestion, but it is more than likely I'll cover the grand majority of oddness and unmentioned unmentionableness.